“From Australia’s Courier Mail newspaper… ‘An international team of naturalists from the Centre for Fortean Zoology has arrived in Tasmania for the first in a series of well-resourced and professional expeditions into Tasmania’s wilderness to hunt for evidence of the Tasmanian tiger. Although the animal was officially declared extinct in the 1980s, reports of thylacine sightings are still common and expedition leader Mike Williams from NSW has high hopes that they can find something. ‘The problem with a lot of the sightings from members of the public is that they’re generally caught by surprise, and their photos are taken on things like mobile phones and aren’t very good,’ he said.

“If the Center for Fortean Zoology’s expedition does indeed uncover evidence that the thylacine really is still with us (albeit with us in an incredibly stealthy fashion!), it would be amazing news. After all, not only is the creature widely believed to have become extinct way back in the 1930s, but it was a truly weird-looking animal, too. On top of that, I’m pretty sure that such a discovery would prove to be a major step in encouraging quests to uncover additional, presumed-extinct beasts, too, as well as the definitive unknowns, such as Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.”

About Nick RedfernPunk music fan, Tennents Super and Carlsberg Special Brew beer fan, horror film fan, chocolate fan, like to wear black clothes, like to stay up late. Work as a writer.

4 Responses to “CFZ Thylacine Expedition”

Excellent. Another serious study into a cryptid. Uk big cats and now the thylacine. Maybe we can put this down to Professor Sykes’ willingness to take on one of the world’s greatest cryptids – the Sasquatch.

What needs to happen is baby steps. Sykes is one; he can’t blow the lid off anything, but only indicate what a serious approach to only one aspect of the evidence should look like.

If this field search doesn’t find a thylacine I’d want to know: how many people, for how much time, using what techniques? What, precisely, did they find?

I don’t believe that any of us should expect anything but full-time field research to uncover a cryptid, barring unforeseeable dumb luck.

One way to advance the possibility of unforeseeable dumb luck: buy one lottery ticket, every day.

Another:

Require anyone who’s going into the field on a biotic survey, of any kind, in North America to take Jeff Meldrum’s field guide along; to report anything found that comports with what’s in that guide; and to take anything brought back by such researchers seriously.